Amph Kirkman's Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead on AMC

Production begins today in Atlanta for AMC's adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic "The Walking Dead." The six-episode first season--written, produced and directed by three-time Academy Award-nominee Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) and executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, Aliens, Armageddon, The Incredible Hulk)--follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, traveling in search of a safe and secure home after a zombie apocalypse.

More, including photos and an interview with Darabont [link=http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/101966-first-look-at-amcs-the-walking-dead]here.[/link]

Those zombies look awesome. It looks like AMC will have yet another hit on their hands, if the source material and their current track record is anything to go by. I'm pretty excited.

This show is almost too good to be true. I've said for years an ongoing live action anthology about the survivors of a zombie apocalypse would be just what the genre needs. IMO the situation is a little less powerful when you know by movie's end that the characters will survive and everything will be alright. That's why I love the movies where everyone is screwed. However, a continuing series about the same characters helps eliminate some of that optimism that things will turn out, since technically there isn't an eventual endpoint to it. Its especially effective if they follow Kirkman's rules, chiefly that no one is safe, not even the main character. And if you read the comic, you find that indeed no one is safe.

Add in Kirkman's story (LOVE IT!) and Darabont as a producer/director (who did a very zombie-esque tale with the Mist) and you've got an incredible formula that I can't wait for. So far the pictures of zombies and makeup tests have been awesome. And on top of all that its being produced by a channel that allows mature themes, violence and gore, things that previous eliminated zombies from being done on Television without being really watered down.

Yeah I would rate Darabont's body of work very highly, and as I mentioned The Mist has many familiar elements demonstrating the knows how to handle similar material (the interactions of people & how they slowly destroy each other as the world goes to hell).

The Mist is a guilty pleasure of mine. One of my favorite endings ever.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Although I wouldn't feel guilty about liking such a good movie. The first time I saw it about a year and a half ago I immediately thought of Walking Dead and wanted Tom Jane to play Rick in a Walking Dead movie. Having Darabont create the TV show is the next best thing, if not better IMO.

Let's just hope broadcasting standards won't neuter the show. The comic is great in that they're free to depict the absolute brutality of people who are forced to survive in a zombie infested world without flinching, but trying to bring that sort of graphic content to a wider medium is trickier. It's why things like the Punisher or Wanted can never be successful movie adaptations.

Let's just hope broadcasting standards won't neuter the show. The comic is great in that they're free to depict the absolute brutality of people who are forced to survive in a zombie infested world without flinching, but trying to bring that sort of graphic content to a wider medium is trickier. It's why things like the Punisher or Wanted can never be successful movie adaptations.

Click to expand...

The imagery so far has seemed pretty gruesome with the make up. They have Greg Nicotero working on it, whose famous for the more recent Romero Zombie make-up jobs all of which are full of gore.

And its on AMC which isn't held to the same rules as network television. That's freed them up to be a little more adult about the material. Look at shows like True Blood or Dexter on similar channels that are allowed to do what they want, to an extent. The material of those shows would certainly be a hard R.

As for censoring, I imagine the only thing they'll be toning down is the language, but that's obviously not a huge deal, as they can seemingly change only a few letters of a word and get away with swearing their heads off these days(BSG).